The Korea Times

Part 52: The big C

GettyimagesbankBy Jacco ZwetslootIn March 2012, while working at the Dragon Hill Lodge's Discover Seoul Desk I took a bathroom break. It required much more effort and strain to relieve myself than normal. Having heard that a reduced stream could be caused by a prostate problem, I resolved to see a urologist as quickly as possible. I soon had my first ultrasound prostate examination. It reminded me of a scene from the movie “Fletch” in which Chevy Chase sings “Moon River”, bent over the examination bed with his pants around his ankles while the doctor examines him from behind. I tried to sing it too but the shock and discomfort of the ultrasound probe making its way in threw my timing right off.The doctor could tell right away that my prostate was larger than normal, and the blood test drawn that day came back with the expected result that my prostate specific antigen (PSA) count was very high. This came as a surprise, since I had undergone a full body medical exam the previous November. I learned that the two possible reasons for a swollen, overactive prostate

Jul 28, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

Part 51: Too many bosses spoil the tourism business

Foreign tourists eat ice-cream as they look around Myeongdong in Seoul on May 15. YonhapBy Jacco ZwetslootIf it was difficult working for three companies at once, it was downright confusing and stressful to have three direct bosses every day, often singing from different hymn sheets, and sometimes working at odds with each other. It could have been worse, I suppose. Thankfully Mr. Paek, the boss of Seobu Rental Cars rarely came to Dragon Hill Lodge, and Amanda, the on-site duty manager, rarely gave me any grief. Institutionally, therefore, I was only dealing with the Hotel and Galaxyjean. In practice, however, things were different.My direct supervisor at Galaxyjean was Mr. Cortez, a retired U.S. army man about eight years my senior. He had spent 18 years in Korea on and off and had seen a lot of the country. However, he spoke no functional Korean and had not really worked in tourism except that tours to the DMZ and JSA were approved by him in his former job in the military.In fact it was his years of experience there that helped him transition into the Korean tourism industry in the

Jul 14, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

Part 51: Too many bosses spoil the tourism business

My life at a Korean law firm (part 50)

By Jacco ZwetslootRecently, while going through old papers at home, I came across a document that I received at the beginning of my stint at the Dragon Hill Lodge Hotel. I had not looked at it for at least six years. It was a three-page list in Korean of all the things that I was responsible for at the Discover Seoul Desk. That there were three pages is a reminder that I effectively had three jobs and served three companies, although I was only paid by one.I will deal with the third list first, because it was the shortest, with only 10 tasks. The hotel's Discover Seoul desk was staffed each day by two employees of Galaxyjin Tours and Seobu Car Rentals. At all times there was to be one staff member of from each firm standing at the desk, while the others worked in the back office. We handled customer inquiries at the desk or by phone and when it was not busy, it was easy to hand off a question about renting a car to one of my Seobu colleagues and they would pass a tour-related inquiry on to me. If that Seobu staff member was temporarily away from the desk, or when there were too many

Jun 24, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

Lady Gaga grief

Lady Gaga performs in Seoul in 2012. Korea Times fileBy Jacco ZwetslootIn April 2012 Lady Gaga came to town for one concert only at Seoul Olympic Stadium. We at the Discover Seoul Desk were tasked with selling tickets to any USFK person who wanted to go. My immediate boss, a retired US Army sergeant major I'll call Cortez, was convinced that this would make our firm a lot of money. It also gave my team and myself a whole lot of headaches. In the beginning the ticketing agency allocated us 200 tickets. The initial batch sold out, and we kept getting calls from anxious would-be concertgoers, so the struggle was on to get more tickets. Galaxyjean head office was able to get more, at first 50 and then another 100, and I think we finally had almost 400 tickets sold. We arranged charter buses to would pick soldiers up outside their base and take them to the stadium. It sounds simple enough, but when you factor in certain elements, it became a wellspring of potential incidents.To begin with, we were not just selling tickets on Yongsan Garrison. Our tour company, Galaxyjean, also had offices

Mar 24, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

My life at a Korean law firm (part 48)

Foreign tourists in Seoul. / gettyimagesbankBy Jacco ZwetslootAt the Discover Seoul Desk, our main job was marketing and selling tours. The tour company for which I worked was the Korean tour company that happened to win the bid for exclusive rights to run tours for the hotel on the base.The company produced a booklet of ready-made tours, most of which are in Seoul and to the usual tourist destinations: royal palaces, the folk village, amusement parks, N Seoul Tower, and so on. These booklets were distributed by the box-full to various hotels around town, as well as on Yongsan Garrison. In early 2012, I was professionally photographed at all these sites, and for three years my grinning visage greeted tourists flipping through that booklet.The most popular tour by far was and remains the full-day JSA and DMZ tour. This tour takes tourists to various see the demilitarized zone and joint security area. I had the opportunity on several occasions to lead this tour as a guide. Customers boarded a bus early in the morning and go north to Imjingak (as far north as most Koreans can go without

Feb 19, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

My life at a Korean law firm (part 47)

By Jacco ZwetslootUpon returning from my weeklong trip to North Korea in late August 2010, I set about trying to make a living for myself as a freelancer. I worked in three main areas: writing and editing, training and teaching, and radio and voice recording. The variety of work that I was doing and the people it brought me into contact with made it fun and interesting. I've always liked variety, and sitting at a desk all day every day is not a job that appeals to me. A couple of highlights: designing and teaching a class on how to socialize effectively for young Korean diplomats about to start their careers, and giving a weekly “Agony Aunt” advice segment on a radio show.To cut a long story short, freelancing was feasible but it required a lot of hustle to get enough work, and also a lot of moving around Seoul from gig to gig. These two factors took a lot of the fun out of being independent, and made me long for some stability and security again. Around April 2011 I was put in touch with the head of marketing for the Dragon Hill Lodge, a hotel on United States Forces Kor

Feb 2, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

My life at a Korean law firm (part 46)

By Jacco ZwetslootOnce a month KOCIS produced a glossy magazine that was distributed free to consular offices, cultural centers, libraries, and Korea-well-wishers around the world. When I was there it was simply called “Korea,” and it may still have that name. This publication was not produced in-house, but was outsourced, at that time to the company that produces Korean Airlines' in-flight magazine “Morning Calm.” The content certainly had some commonalities with an airline monthly ― upbeat, colorful, informative, sometimes quirky, always inoffensive. Like our website, there were feature articles on festivals and parts of Korea that people should see, or aspects of Korean culture that foreigners must experience, etc. I don't know whether we in the KOCIS office had any editorial input; probably somebody above me met the editors regularly to discuss story ideas, but I was surprised that the content writers for Korea.net generally did not seem to take part in any of that. Because of my wide circle of friends in the expat community, I was asked to find a willing

Jan 13, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

My life at a Korean law firm (part 45)

By Jacco ZwetslootWorking at Korea.net involved mainly improving government press releases rewritten in English or finessing the texts of my Korean colleagues who wrote original articles on recycled themes about growth in Korea's exports, aspects of its culture, that month's festivals and so on. Of course, the tired trope of Korea's having “four distinct seasons” raised its ugly head more than once. Under President Lee, the overseas promotion of Korean cuisine (branded hansik) was a priority. We wrote about Korean state-owned (or at least state-funded) restaurants abroad, and lots of pieces about “court cuisine.” I cannot recall how many articles included a paragraph or two on the dish “sinseollo.” I polled my Korean colleagues, none of whom had tried it. To this day I don't know any Koreans who eat it regularly, nor could I find a restaurant that served it without resorting to an internet or app search. All I know is it is apparently quintessentially Korean.When late President Roh Moo-hyun tragically took his own life, our technical team turned th

Jan 5, 2019By Jacco Zwetsloot

My life at a Korean law firm (part 44)

Michael Spavor with a North Korean family that approached him for a picture at Pyongyang's Kaeson Night Fun Fair, August 2010. Korea Times photo by Jon DunbarBy Jacco ZwetslootThis week a slight diversion from, but one that dovetails with, my life story. I'm going to write about my Canadian friend Michael Spavor, whose situation I am concerned about, because he is an unwilling guest of the Chinese government. Spavor was arrested on his way catch a flight from Dalian Airport on Monday, Dec. 10. He was scheduled to visit Seoul for some meetings, and to attend a lecture at the Royal Asiatic Society, where he had once lectured on his experiences in North Korea. When he did not turn up, his friends were not immediately worried. But on Wednesday evening when a friend told me that Spavor was still out of touch, I began calling and texting around to try to get some information. Nobody had seen nor heard from him since early Monday.On Thursday morning the Canadian government announced that a second citizen was under arrest in China (in addition to Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat an

Dec 30, 2018By Jacco Zwetsloot

China, release our friend

My life at a Korean law firm (part 43)

By Jacco ZwetslootEver since the foundation of the Republic of Korea in 1948, there have been variously named government bodies and ministries responsible for promoting Korea's good image abroad. This once exclusively took the form of publications ― books, pamphlets, posters and calendars ― but in the digital age this work expanded into the internet space, with the Korean government's official website Korea.net starting in 1999. Why the .net domain was chosen rather than .go.kr was never clear to me. In early 2008 I saw a job advertisement. Korea.net was looking for someone to replace its chief English editor and writer. I applied and got called in for an interview and a test edit. The then head of the team, a Mr. Kim, told me that if I got the job I would have to use only American spelling and grammar conventions. I assured him that I had no problem with this.I was offered the job, and I took it because the pay was adequate and, after the tumultuous time with the company I had helped found, I wanted a calm, secure workplace where I could learn things. In early March I began work. Ko

Dec 23, 2018By Jacco Zwetsloot

Working at a Korean Law firm